BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - North Dakota prisons have implemented new safety measures after seven inmates and seven staff members were diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic started.
The state’s top corrections officials updated the Legislature’s interim Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Review Committee on Wednesday, The Bismarck Tribune reported. Changes included suspension of prison visitation, quarantining and testing before and after jail transports, and separating groups of inmates by wings and floors of housing.
Department Director Leann Bertsch said antibody testing will begin this week. North Dakota’s Department of Health is also looking into wastewater testing to track the virus in prisons.
“We’re just as vulnerable as nursing homes,” Bertsch said.
County jail inmates being admitted to prisons quarantine for 14 days and are tested before and after joining a prison’s general population.
The North Dakota State Penitentiary in Bismarck has had five inmates and five staff test positive for COVID-19. All of the inmates have recovered and three of the staff members are still sick. The Missouri River Correctional Center in Bismarck and the Youth Correctional Center in Mandan have had no cases so far.
Meanwhile, diagnoses in Burleigh and Morton counties have been increasing in recent weeks. Burleigh currently has the most active cases in the state but no deaths have been reported.
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